Tuesday, March 22, 2011

My experience in the shower yesterday was one I hadn't had in a long time. I shared my shower with a nice big bar of wonderful. Let me see if I can describe my experience with My Bar so you can be with me in the shower.

I got in and the water was very warm, verging on too hot (I can almost never get it quite right in that damn shower). I pick up Voluptas and pass it through the water as I bring it towards my other hand and it already starts to create bubbles from the friction in my hand that's holding on to it. Good sign. I start rubbing the soap between my hands and big bubbles grow, but(!) underneath, the tiny, itty bitty shaving cream type bubbles emerge with great density.

Ohhhh, heavenly dense lather.

They are so soft and moisturizing, that I move away from the water so this lather doesn't wash away. I figure what fun it would be to cover my self from head to toe with this vanilla-y-dense-a-love and experience it totally. I did - and my body thanked me for it. What fun it was to not only feel luxurious but also to get a chance to play with so much lather for a while. I rarely give myself time in the shower because I am on the go, it seems, all the time.

Usually when a bar is this dark, the lather is a dark tan and leaves dark bubbles all over, but this one is only a light tan and doesn't leave the shower looking like poop was splattered around by a pissed off monkey. Also, the soap washed away clean off my skin, but not a dry squeaky clean. A soft clean. I do this little thing with every soap I try: I rub it against my lips to see how smooth it is. This one is super smooth, no bumps at all. love!

Smelly

I love vanilla but I really despise faux vanillas. I am usually extremely unhappy with vanilla overall. That is hard to be coming from someone who loves the smell of real vanilla. One of my problems is that I keep thinking this will change because I keep reading descriptions that are written so perfectly and then I receive product A or B and then I want to vomit, so I was nervous to receive this vanilla bar.

This is no typical vanilla. It's no vanilla extract or vanilla ice cream folks. There is some real vanilla hearty stuff in there. Dreaming Tree's description is:

Named for the Goddess of everything sensual and pleasurable; this is a blend of two of the most amazing vanillas. Made with creamy coconut milk, and loads of organic cocoa butter making Voluptas a sensuous shower treat.

I smell vanilla bourbon, although, I could be wrong, whatever these two vanillas are, they are not vanilla as they say. It is far more of a serious blend for the nose that is super comforting to me, that along with the skin benefits of the bar, it felt as if I was perhaps using the best bar of soap I could be using for my skin.

The soap was only lightly scented and that could be a bonus for some and a negative for others. Though I will say, this is an incredibly heavy scent and if it were to be scented more heartily, it could be overwhelming... I don't know. (I know that I have lightly scented soaps and heavily scented soaps in my line.)

Coconut milk, apricot kernel oil & organic cocoa butter? Vanilla? Mmm. I want to make a cake with that and then bathe in it!! It's not cake, but I bathed with it, and my skin loves me for it. And I love Meghan Runyon of Dreaming Tree Soapworks for making it.

I don't give points or stars or thumbs up, but I will tell you to go buy a bar before it disappears. I'm not sure if this is a limited edition, but if it is, I hope she at least keeps this formula in her line. Meghan, pleeeeeeeeaase.

Not only does Meghan make soap, she makes a lot of bath and body products but she researches like crazy and can take up to a year in research and development before introducing a product to her line.

Thank you, Meghan, for allowing me to review your soap!! Maybe I should interview you next!

Monday, March 21, 2011

Today I am Using.... will be a new feature on The Soap Bar. I love using other people's creations (and my own) so I thought because I use products from around the world but don't always review them, I thought I'd share with links. And you can peek into my product life by reading what I use...

Oh! And Anne-Marie from Brambleberry did NOT ask me to promote this, but I have to say, I have used every type of soaping glasses on this planet, and their soap glasses are by far the best protection around. The foam interior blocks any space for a drip of raw soap or splash of lye water to eek through. I can just throw the others away. They are $18, but blindness is nothing I want to mess around with.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Soap Reviews, you say?? It's been awhile, I know... But, don't forget, I started this blog in August 2007 ( I know, can you believe it?) and it started as a soap reviewing and featuring blog. The original intention of this blog was to create an awareness of handmade soap, its beauty and the amazing soapmakers who make them from all around the world. I felt as if handmade soap had been so under served and so underused. I still plan on converting the world, one person at a time, but Costco exists and even though my family accepts my soap for free, I bet secretly, they buy the sale soap when it's 10 for $3.00. It's ingrained in their head and they don't want to use my soap to quickly, really, because they are taking from me, or it's too pretty.... my mother likes using one in every room because it freshens the air and people comment on how good the bathrooms smell. "Hmm, why don't you USE it, mom? I'll give you more!" Mom says,"It's so pretty honey, I really enjoy looking at it and smelling it whenever I want."

{{rolling eyes inserted here}}

Anyway...

I have a few soaps that have arrived that will be making it to the screen. My camera hasn't yet photographed them because of technical difficulties that will be resolved later today, but here are the soaps that their makers took from their hometowns:

Cream Bee by Celine Blacow of SOAPERSTARUpdate: Sorry to make you drool over a soap I don't have. :(

Monday, March 14, 2011

Last week there was a soap blog contest and so many wonderful blogs were nominated in six different categories and this blog won overall content and I would like to thank everyone for helping me make this blog what it is today, because it takes all of us. If you didn't read it, I don't think I'd be here.... what... since August of 2007?? Wow, almost four years.

I can't do this alone. I would love your help. So, if you have a video or photographic tutorial you'd like to share or create that I can post here, I would love that, and so would everyone else.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

I discovered a soap blog that features gorgeous soap made by Claudia Mold.

Because the entire blog is in German and I don't speak German, I don't know what's being said. I did, however, Google Translate Claudia's profile : Iam35 yearsold,married,havefivebeautiful children andam abusyhousewife.

For someone with five children who must have a busy life, she cranks out some absolutely beautiful art! Check it out....

sea salt soap

solid shampoo

sea salt soap

shea and cocoa butter soap

So now I have fallen in love with soap from a new soapmaker I have never known about before. I love careening through the internet! And I am glad to be able to share it all with you.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Amy Warden, of Great Cakes Soapworks, decided to run a Best Handmade Soap Blogs Award and The Soap Bar was nominated for four out of six categories. I am speechless. It is an honor being nominated and it feels amazing to be recognized. I want to share my thanks and tell you that you all have made The Soap Bar what it is, really. I started it and you helped me bring it here.

Thank you.

I urge you to go to Amy's blog and vote, for any of the blogs! All of them are wonderful. You should check them all out. I learned about a few I didn't know existed and I am thrilled to have them on my list of places to go to see talent, new ideas, other people's bursts of creativity and (hee hee) more soap porn material. Yay that! I also don't see this as a competition, really. I feel this more as a bonding with other bloggers and I wish we could all sit around a big breakfast table and have coffee and biscuits and jam and hang out.

Again, I urge you to look at all the blogs and continue learning and loving and growing and vote because as of 10:15 am, there are only 95 voters and there probably should be more. This is international, baby.